Speech Delivered at an International Meeting in Berne, February 8, 1916[1]

Published:Berner Tagwacht, No. 33, February 9, 1916.

      First published in the Russian in 1929 in the second and third editions of Lenin’sCollected Works, Vol. XIX.

      Translated from the German.

      Published according to the text inBerner Tagwacht.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      UNKNOWN,[19xx],

      Moscow,Volume 22,

      pages123-126.Translated:UNKNOWN UNKNOWNTranscription\Markup:D. WaltersPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (2005).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

Comrades!The European war has been raging for
more than eighteen months. And as each month, as each day of the
war goes by, it becomes clearer and clearer to the masses of the
workers that theZimmerwald
=

Manifesto[2]expressed the truth when it declared that phrases
about “defence of the fatherland” and the like are nothing but
capitalist deception. It is becoming more evident every day that
this is a warbetween capitalists, between big robbers,who are quarrelling over the loot, each striving to obtain the
largest share, the largest number of countries to plunder, and
the largest number of nations to suppress and enslave.

Itmay sound incredible, especially to Swiss comrades, but it is
nevertheless true that in Russia, also, not only bloody tsarism,
not only the capitalists, but also a section of the so-called or
ex-Socialists say that Russia is fighting a “war of defence,”
that Russia is only fighting against German invasion. The whole
world knows, however, that for decades tsarism has been
oppressing more than a hundred million people belonging to other
nationalities in Russia; that for decades Russia has been
pursuing a predatory policy towards China, Persia, Armenia and
Galicia.Neither Russia, nor Germany, nor any other Great
Power has the right to claim that it is waging a“war of
defence”; all the Great Powers are waging an imperialist,
capitalist war, a predatory war, a war for the oppression of
small and foreign nations, a war for the sake of the profits of
the capitalists, who are coining golden profits amounting to
billions out of the appalling sufferings of the masses, out of
the blood of the proletariat.

Fouryears ago, in November 1912, when it had become clear that
war was approaching, the representatives of the Socialist
Parties of the whole world gathered at the International
Socialist Congress inBasle. Even at
that time there was no room for doubt that the impending war
would be a war between the Great Powers, between the great
beasts of prey; that responsibility for the war would rest upon
the governments and the capitalist classes ofallthe
Great Powers. The Basle Manifesto, which was adopted unanimously
by the Socialist Parties of the whole world, openly stated this
truth.The Basle Manifesto does not say a word about a “war
of defence,” or “defence of the fatherland.” It castigates
the governments and the bourgeoisie of all the Great Powers
without exception. It said openly that war would be the greatest
of crimes, that the workers would consider it a crime to shoot
at each other, that the horrors of war and the indignation these
would rouse among the workers would inevitably lead to aproletarian revolution.

Whenthe war actually broke out it was realised that its
character had been correctly defined at Basle. But the Socialist
and labour organisations were not unanimous in carrying out the
Basle decisions; they split. We see now that in all countries of
the world the Socialist and labour organisations are split into
two big camps. The smaller section, the leaders, functionaries
and officials, have betrayed Socialism and have deserted to the
side of the governments. Another section, to which the mass of
class conscious workers belong, continues to gather its forces,
to fight against the war and for the proletarian revolution.

Theviews of this latter section also found expression in the
Zimmerwald Manifesto.

InRussia, from the very beginning of the war, theworkers’
deputiesin the Duma waged a determined revolutionary
struggle against the war and the tsarist monarchy. Five workers’
deputies—Petrovsky, Badayev, Muranov, Shagov and
Samoilov—distributed revolutionary manifestoes against the
war and energetically carried on revolutionary
agitation. Tsarism ordered the arrest of those five deputies,
put them on trial, and sentenced them to lifelong exile in
Siberia. For months the leaders of the working class of Russia
have been pining in Siberia; but their cause has not goneunder;
their work is being continued by the class-conscious workers all
over Russia.

Comrades!You have heard the speeches of representatives of
various countries, who have told you about the workers’
revolutionary struggle against the war. I merely want to quote
one other example from that great and rich country, the United
States of America. The capitalists of that country are now
making enormous profits out of the European war. And they, too,
are agitating for war. They say that America must also prepare
to take part in the war, hundreds of millions of dollars must be
squeezed out of the people for new armaments, for armaments
without end. And in America, too, a section of the Socialists
echoes this false, criminal call. Let me read to you what
Comrade Eugene Debs, the most popular leader of the American
Socialists, the Presidential candidate of the American Socialist
Party, writes.

Inthe September 11, 1915, American weekly,The
Appeal to
Reason,[3]September 11, 1915, he says:

“I am not a capitalist soldier; I am a proletarian
revolutionist. I do not belong to the regular army of rite
plutocracy, but to the irregular army of the people. I refuse to
obey any command to fight for the ruling class.... I am opposed
to every war but one; I am for that war with heart and soul, and
that is the world-wide war of the social revolution. In that war
I am prepared to fight in any way the ruling class may make it
necessary....”

Thisis whatEugene
Debs, the AmericanBebel,
the beloved leader of the American workers, writes to them.

Thisagain shows you, comrades, thatin all countries of the
world real preparations are being made to rally the forces of
the working class.The horrors of war and the sufferings of
the people are incredible. But we must not, and we have no
reason whatever, to view the future with despair.

Themillions of victims who will fall in the war, and as a
consequence of the war, will not fall in vain. The millions who
are starving, the millions who are sacrificing their lives in
the trenches, are not only suffering, they are also gathering
strength, are pondering over the real cause of the war, are
becoming more determined and are acquiring a clearer
revolutionary understanding. Rising discontent of the masses,
growing ferment, strikes, demonstrations,protests against the
war—all this is taking place inallcountries of
the world.And this is the guarantee that the European War
will be followed by the proletarian revolution against
capitalism.

[1]This
      speech was delivered at an international rally during the
      enlarged meeting of the I.S.C. [executive of the Zimmerwald
      group] in Berne.

[2][PLACEHOLDER.]

[3][PLACEHOLDER.]